Re: Erfworld game, a co-op perhaps?

Originally Posted by fangthane

Arkentools - leave them in, or take them out as overpowered destroyers of balance?
Tri-mancer linkups - what each might be capable of accomplishing is in question, as well as what each should be capable of doing vis-a-vis balance.

These are plot specific McGuffins. Generally, I'd say leave them out.

Also, I should point out that for most of us, it's a serious issue to gather sufficient gamer-geeks for D&D, let alone to represent every Person of Interest in an Erf-style wargame. If you're going to make something anyone will ever play, it has to allow for one person to control a side wholesale.

I was thinking of a collaborative board game type of thing. Something that might be played on GitP, where gamer-geeks are abundant.

Therefore, you get team collaboration RP.

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I do have an idea as to how loyalty could be handled under these circumstances and remain a mystery, but it's a bit complex and involves 'loyalty challenges' - face-down loyalty cards, die rolls for the check and a new loyalty card after each check, and 'permanent' effects to add + or - loyalty modifiers to friends/enemies/torture victims. For example, pay the bazillion schmuckers for an iron maiden, rack and everything, and you get a better chance to affect your prisoner's loyalty (with a certain number of successful checks needed to fully turn a character)

Terrible idea. Too much extra rolling and rules referencing.

Just treat people like NPC's with varying personalities or have players roleplay them.

Erfworld implies that Loyalty is an "invisible" stat. Which suggests that it may not be as simple as scoring it as a single numeral. Nor is Loyalty immediately obvious. Wanda is perhaps a prime example of this fact.

It also kills off a lot of the interesting roleplaying aspects since it no longer becomes a question of a character's motivation or general inclination?

I'd rather come up with a quick rubric of "rules" for an NPC.

For example:
Johnny, the Level 1 Warlord
- Johnny prefers to follow his orders to the letter.
- He hates disobeying orders, even if he thinks it would directly benefit his side.
- Johnny is friendly.
- Johnny is loathe to lose his troops and values them as individuals.
- He is vocal about any plans he views as unfair to the troops and will be discontented if asked to use troops as canon fodder.
- Johnny is incorruptible. He does not like dishonesty and will not take bribes even if he thinks there would be no evident harm to his side.